Baranduin

Infobox River
river_name =


caption =
origin = Lake Evendim
mouth = Sundering Sea
basin_countries = Eriador, The Shire, (earlier) Arnor, Cardolan, Arthedain
length = convert|550|mi|km
elevation = Unknown
mouth_elevation = Unknown
discharge = Unknown
watershed = Unknown

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Baranduin or Brandywine River is a river of Middle-earth. It is convert|550|mi|km long, and the fourth-longest river in Middle-earth behind the Anduin, the Celduin (or Running), and the Greyflood/Hoarwell (or Gwathló/Mitheithel).

Flowing out of Nenuial (Lake Evendim) in northern Eriador, the river flows eastward for about convert|60|mi|km before turning generally southward; after about another convert|120|mi|km it flows through the easternmost reaches of the Shire, forming its eastern border except for Buckland which lies between it and the Old Forest. Its only major crossings in the Shire are the Brandywine Bridge (originally "Bridge of Stonebows") on the East Road, Bucklebury Ferry, and Sarn Ford in the Southfarthing.

Skirting the Old Forest to the south, the river then loops south-westward, crossing an old road at Sarn Ford and flowing to the north of the depopulated region of Minhiriath before flowing into the Sundering Sea to the north of the forested region of Eryn Vorn.

The name "Baranduin" was Sindarin for "golden-brown river". The Hobbits of the Shire originally gave it the punning name "Branda-nîn", meaning "border water" in original Hobbitish Westron. This was later punned again as "Bralda-hîm" meaning "heady ale" (referring to the colour of its water), which Tolkien renders into English as "Brandywine".

To the Hobbits of the Shire, the Brandywine was the boundary between the known and unknown, and even those who lived in Buckland on the immediate opposite shore were considered "peculiar".

No tributaries of the Baranduin are described except those near or in the Shire:
* The Water - central Shire, from the northwest
* The Stockbrook - arises in the Woody End
* River Shirebourne - rises in Green-Hill country, tributary is Thistle Brook
* Withywindle - from the Old Forest

There is a Girdley Island in the river just above the Brandywine Bridge.

References

* "The Atlas of Middle-earth"

"See Brandywine for other uses of the name."